We have reached my final blog post covering the LEGO® Friends sets from the January 2025 wave. The last three sets have us building a treehouse, stylin' a new coif, and setting out on a camping trip. And of course, all these adventures will provide us with new elements.
I am building the sets in the January 2025 wave of LEGO® Friends sets, and for this blog post I’ve selected the ones that primarily focus on animals. It’s a cuteness overload!
The LEGO Friends theme is responsible for the introduction of many new animals, whose more curvy, realistic features stand out from the more blocky classic versions found in themes like LEGO® City. This latest wave brings us many new cute creatures to go ‘aaaaaaaah’ over; both brand new molds and existing molds with new prints. Most of these can be found in the 4 sets that we will be taking a look at today, going from the smallest to the largest.
“Come on and fly with me, let's fly, let's fly away”
Heartlake City Airlines flies all over the world, and its passengers bring back exotic new elements from their travels for you to enjoy. So fasten your seatbelts as we go on a journey.
In our second part of set reviews from the LEGO® Friends January 2025 wave we visit several locations in Heartlake City that offer food in various forms, starting with a small ice cream truck and ending in an idyllic cottage a beekeeper calls home. While enjoying the sustenance we'll explore the new elements these sets provide.
We start off the reviews for the LEGO® Friends January 2025 wave with the biggest set in the line-up. Together, let's hop on our bike and inline skates to potter some clay and wash out any resulting stains in the laundromat, before enjoying a cup of tea with locally sourced honey while watching the cats play with yarn. Oh, and look at the new baby!
The first wave of 2025 LEGO® Friends contains 20 sets in total, including 2 only-partly-poly-but-mostly-paper bags. Across these, I’ve counted 222 new elements for us to enjoy, and so before I review the individual sets, I’ve put the most prominent, fresh molds in an overview for you.
Welcome to December already! It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, although the 2024 LEGO® advent calendars were actually revealed back in August. Stop reading now if you want to keep every aspect of your LEGO® City, LEGO® Friends or LEGO® Disney Advent calendars a surprise. Although we won't be spoiling the final mini-builds here, we have collected the new elements, new prints and rare elements from each of the three advent calendars to show you.
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There's some fun new elements amongst the usual fires with marshmallows toasting, ice hockey and Christmas trees!
We recently came across a new LEGO® element. They look somewhat macabre and perhaps more akin to something from John Carpenter's The Thing than LEGO.
The elements in question appears to be mini-doll legs that are moulded in pairs. The double-ended legs started a discussion here at New Elementary about mini-doll leg moulding processes and the timing of printing. Read on to hear our theories.
From tomorrow Monday 16 September, set 40694 River Camping Adventure is the gift with purchase with select LEGO® themes. Here’s your early look at what this cute LEGO® Friends set contains!
There are three sets left to review from our batch of June 2024 LEGO® Friends sets, and 42623 Beach Water Scooter, 42625 Beach Smoothie Stand, and 42630 Heartlake City Water Park all depict fun in the water. Just as I started building these, the summer sun finally appeared here in the Netherlands, after weeks of rain. So it’s the perfect occasion to have a cooldown, be it at the pool or on the beach.
Grab your sleeping bag, citronella candle and first aid kit; we're going camping! The June 2024 LEGO® Friends wave includes 4 sets that are situated out in the wild: 42622 Adventure Camp Archery Range, 42624 Adventure Camp Cozy Cabins, 42626 Adventure Camp Water Sports, and 42631 Adventure Camp Tree House. Will these sets bring us some much needed relaxation, or will the bugs and bears keep us up at night?
When you hear the word castle, most AFOLs will think of fortified walls, towers, drawbridges, moats, knights, archers and trebuchets... and of course grey, grey and grey. But despite having the word castle in its name, today’s set doesn’t fit that description at all.
Snuggle in for a cosy night and delicious morning as we stay at the new LEGO® Friends set 42638 Castle Bed and Breakfast.
Summer is coming (for the northern hemisphere); often a time for vacation. The June 2024 LEGO® Friends wave offers several forms of relaxation, with sets taking us to an adventure camp, the beach, a water park and a bed and breakfast in an old castle. If you don't have time off though, you can still grab a pastry at the café.
LEGO has sent us most of the wave for an early peek. Before I take a closer look at the sets themselves, I’ve gathered all new elements found across the whole wave in this overview for you.
To boldly go where no mini-doll has gone before! Olivia has set out for the stars, as her next space-themed set has her exploring alien life beyond our solar system. Buckle up and join the ride with LEGO® Friends 42602 Space Research Rover.
Houses of the main characters have always been prominent in the LEGO® Friends line. The theme was rebooted last year, and the new style has been generally acclaimed. 42620 Olly and Paisley's Family Houses is the first LEGO Friends main cast set to feature two different houses, both in unusual colour schemes, yet feeling architecturally coherent.
The LEGO® Friends theme was rebooted last year and in addition to brand new set concepts like 42605 Mars Space Base and Rocket it has brought many new takes on sets from earlier years. During its 12 year run, LEGO Friends has given us 41058 Heartlake Shopping Mall in 2014 – remembered for its Pearl Gold palm leaves, and 41450 Heartlake City Shopping Mall in 2021 – a surprisingly recent model that shares the same name, layout and escalator system as the new mall I'm reviewing today: 42604 Heartlake City Shopping Mall.
All of the rebooted LEGO Friends sets seem to be large improvements over their predecessors; so how does this mall fare?
While the LEGO® Friends theme often portrays small, independent businesses, it also gets a fair share of public services. The health services take place in 42621 Heartlake City Hospital which is a name that might sound familiar to you as there is a LEGO Friends set from 2020 with the exactly same name - 41394 Heartlake City Hospital. Comparisons with it show just how far the LEGO Friends theme has come; not only during its 12-year run, but also just within this decade. Heartlake City has been rebooted, so let's find out how its hospital has changed with it.
A Space subtheme – or should that be supertheme? – has been spread across several lines in January 2024 sets, and LEGO® Friends get their fair share with sets 42605 Mars Space Base and Rocket and 42603 Stargazing Camping Vehicle. I've posted my review of the latter on New Elementary's Patreon and social accounts, but first let's look at the Mars base, which features a unique design with two large quarter-dome modules along an airlock; a semi-realistic design with some amusing details. Step aboard!
With 2275 parts, 42639 Andrea’s Modern Mansion is the largest LEGO® Friends set to date. These parts include a lot of interesting new elements which we’ve already taken a look at, but now it’s time to start building!
LEGO® Friends celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2022, and in 2023 we saw a relaunch of the theme. The Heartlake City Universe made a time jump, introducing a new generation of characters. But the old friends were not forgotten! The original group is meeting up in 42639 Andrea's Modern Mansion for a reunion and catching up on adventures since their ‘split’. We’ll join the party soon, but first we’ll be taking a look at all the new elements found in the set. And there is a new color!
